By evening, nine hours after the fire started, no portion of its perimeter had containment lines to keep the flames from spreading. Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency, and 700 firefighting personnel were battling the blaze.

Images from the fire lines showed homes in flames. A house on a rural road off Highway 138 west of Mormon Rocks appeared to have burned to the ground. The McDonald’s restaurant at the 15 Freeway and 138 caught fire, a U.S. Forest Service spokesman confirmed.

Fire officials couldn’t yet quantify the damage.

“We have had buildings burn,” said U.S. Forest Service spokesman Chon Bribiescas on Tuesday night. But it was hard to count how many amid conditions that made observers feel they were viewing the world through a soda straw. “I was driving through flames.”

A major flareup ripped along both sides of Highway 138 at Hess Road about 6:15 p.m., sending dozens of fire engine crews into full retreat. They didn’t go far, maybe half a mile.

But the incident was emblematic of the fire that was advancing on many fronts, threatening communities as far-flung as Lytle Creek and Summit Valley, some 15 miles apart.

Midday Tuesday, six San Bernardino County firefighters defending homes and assisting with evacuations in the Swarthout Canyon area west of Cajon Pass were trapped by the fire, sheltering in a nearby structure. The fire burned an engine.

Two of those firefighters were taken to the hospital, but both were released and returned to the fire line Tuesday afternoon, according to county fire spokeswoman Tracey Martinez.

The Blue Cut fire was startling in its speed, said Char Miller, a professor at Pomona College who researches wildfires.

“It’s bewildering,” Miller said. “The fire is moving very, very quickly, and I think that’s one of the examples of the nature of fire this summer. This is in big measure because we’re in a deep drought. The drought, the weather and the temperature have come together in a way that’s, frankly, pretty scary.”

Evacuations, road closures

The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department ordered mandatory evacuations in multiple areas, including areas of Wrightwood, Phelan and Baldy Mesa.

The San Bernardino City Unified School District also evacuated students from Kimbark Elementary to Chavez Middle School, and Snowline Unified School District evacuated students from Wrightwood Elementary School.

Road closures included the 15 between the 215 in Devore and Ranchero Road in Hesperia; Highway 138 from the 15 to Highway 2; Old Cajon Boulevard north of Devore Cutoff; and Lytle Creek at Glen Helen. Other areas faced heavy congestion.

The Red Cross set up evacuation centers at the Jessie Turner Community Center, 15556 Summit Ave., in Fontana, and at Sultana High School, 17311 Sultana St., in Hesperia.

About 30 people evacuated to the Jessie Turner Community Center, including Doris Jimenez, 71.

“I was right in the middle of it,” said Jimenez, who lives on Club View Drive in the Lytle Creek area. “This morning I opened up my drapes, and it was pure black. I’m very worried. I have no insurance.”

The Devore Animal Shelter is accepting large and small animals from evacuated areas, according to the Sheriff’s Department. The shelter is at 19777 Shelter Way, San Bernardino. Large animals may also be taken to the San Bernardino County Fairgrounds at 14800 7th Ave. in Victorville.

BNSF Railway Co. has shut down train operations through the Cajon Pass in both directions, said spokeswoman Lena Kent.

“We do have a train that is close to the fire that is in the process of safely being moved away from the area,” she said.

The Associated Press reported that a freight train was stopped by the fire and its crew had to flee.

Fire part of ‘a new normal’

The Blue Cut fire was reported just after 10:30 a.m. near Kenwood Avenue in the Cajon Pass, according to the U.S. Forest Service. The cause is not known.

Weather conditions in the area were ideal for fire: temperatures close to 100, humidity at 5 percent or less for most of the afternoon and wind gusts up to 20 mph.

Within eight hours, the Blue Cut fire had grown larger than the nearby Pilot fire, which started Aug. 7 and topped 8,000 acres five days later. Firefighters began the “mop-up stage” on that fire Sunday and it was declared fully contained Tuesday morning.

This is part of a trend of longer and worse fire seasons, said Miller, the Pomona College professor.

“The pattern suggests we’re in what people are calling a new normal,” Miller said by phone. “This is not simply tied to drought. It’s partly because of climate change. As the season gets longer, that’s again linked to climate change. And that’s having a more dramatic effect because more people live in these areas than was true 20 years ago.”

Smoke led to unhealthy air quality in areas near Devore, the central and west San Bernardino Mountains and parts of the central San Bernardino Valley, according to the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

People in areas affected by the smoke should avoid outdoor activity and run their air conditioners, the district advised.

Ryan Hagen covers the city of Riverside for the Southern California Newspaper Group. Since he began covering Inland Empire governments in 2010, he's written about a city entering bankruptcy and exiting bankruptcy; politicians being elected, recalled and arrested; crime; a terrorist attack; fires; ICE; fights to end homelessness; fights over the location of speed bumps; and people's best and worst moments. His greatest accomplishment is breaking a coffee addiction. His greatest regret is any moment without coffee.